Coalition and Greens blast Albo’s pledge as reheated policy

The federal government has been accused of lying to the public and media about its new housing package, but the Prime Minister has rejected the criticism.

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The centrepiece of Tuesday’s federal budget has been exposed as a “fraud” with the Albanese Government accused of lying to the public and media by repackaging money from the Morrison era while building no new homes and doing nothing for first-home buyers or renters.

An embargoed copy of a media release on Friday outlined what the government claimed was a $11.3bn injection of new money for housing, but the package was met with a chorus of abuse from both the Coalition and Greens, with the state government also pointing out the package was a rolling over of the existing National Housing and Homelessness Agreement that began in 2009.

As Treasurer Jim Chalmers prepares for the impending budget release, Coalition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar called his core housing pledge a “fraud” package with “no new money, no new ideas, no new homes, nothing for first-home buyers” and “nothing for renters”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected the criticism, arguing the new five-year agreement would give states and territories essential infrastructure for housing development such as power, water and roads.

“No, it’s not right – there was no agreement. The funding ran out on July 1,” he said.

“This is a new agreement going forward.”

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his daughter Annabel were out buying flowers for Mother’s Day at their local flower shop Unveiling Poppy in Daisy Hill. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

State Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said the federal government’s continued funding would allow Queensland to keep delivering its ambitious housing plan, which aims to build 1 million homes by 2046.

“With the federal government’s contribution we’ll build even more homes,” she said.

While Queensland housing industry leaders welcomed the funding, they warned it wouldn’t be enough to solve the housing crisis, with the controversial Best Practice Industry Conditions (BPIC) policy driving away high density developers and detached housing approvals hitting decade lows.

Latest figures from the Housing Industry Association revealed there were just under 20,000 detached homes forecast to commence in Queensland during the 2023-24 financial year, down 10 per cent compared to the previous year – the weakest approval rate in a decade.

Numbers are expected to grow slightly in this year and then peak in 2026-27 at about 23,680 homes, well short of the government target of 49,000 per year. Worse still, just 11,810 unit dwellings are forecast to commence during the same period, down 12.9 per cent compared to last financial year. Unit developments are forecast to start increasing from this year, up to around 20,000 by 2026-27.

HIA Queensland executive director Michael Roberts said while the federal budget funding could boost detached housing numbers in suburban infill areas where yield rates were dropping for developers, BPIC had killed high-density projects.

“We’ve been saying all along that throwing money at this problem wasn’t the silver bullet,” he said. “It might help in regards to affordable land, but it will depend on whether the state government is prepared to step in and tell local councils to get out of the way of developers. High-density is just not going to happen because of BPIC, because while projects are being approved, developers just cannot afford to take them on, not while BPIC remains in place.”

Property Council Queensland executive director Jess Claire said BPIC measures had placed additional pressure on the private sector, which was boosting the cost of delivering homes.

“It’s never been more expensive, it’s never been harder to deliver housing, so we need to look at ways to reduce that,” she said.

An aerial view of a housing estate in Toowoomba. Photo: Toowoomba Regional Council.

Ms Claire said taxation and workforce shortages needed to remain a government focus.

“We absolutely welcome the federal government announcement, it’ll be how we now deliver that on the ground,” she said. “We’ve got spiralling productivity, high demand, a very top heavy infrastructure pipeline and extraordinary population growing pains. We need to get skilled workers here.”

Master Builders Queensland chief executive Paul Bidwell said while there were now clear housing targets and apprentice incentives, Queensland was “just not building enough”.

He said unions, government and industry leaders needed to sit down together and talk about a BPIC workaround that increased productivity.

“BPIC has inflated the wages, so why would people want to work anywhere except a government job where they get paid a lot more?” he said.

Asked whether the government would arrange such a meeting, Ms Scanlon deflected, saying the LNP needed to “admit” they supported BPIC.

“David Crisafulli refuses to tell us whether he would support these conditions, but his own Shadow Treasurer has let slip that the LNP will honour them,” she said.

Originally published as Coalition and Greens blast Albo’s pledge as reheated policy